


Coffee in the Shower

by a_xmasmurder



Series: 30 Days of OTP: Bond/Q [31]
Category: James Bond (Craig movies), James Bond - All Media Types, Skyfall (2012) - Fandom
Genre: And serious at the end, Coffee, Established Relationship, James and Q being adorable, M/M, Showers, domestic life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-28
Updated: 2013-12-28
Packaged: 2018-01-06 12:03:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1106587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_xmasmurder/pseuds/a_xmasmurder
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>*shrugs* Fluff. Doesn't really need a summary :)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coffee in the Shower

**Author's Note:**

> Just one of many extras I have planned for this 'verse.

“Honey, I’m home!” James says this with a grin as he slips the door shut behind him. “And I’ve done the shopping...and where the hell have you gone, Evan?” He tosses his keys into the bowl by the door and slips out of his leather jacket, the one that Evan had gotten him for no apparent reason other than ‘you look ridiculously hot in leather’ last summer. It isn’t exactly his size, nor is it horridly expensive like the rest of his wardrobe, but James loves it nevertheless, loves it more than his perfect midnight blue shawl-collared dinner suit that hides every conceivable concealable weapon he owns. He knows it does, because he’s done it.

It’s ten o’clock in the evening, and the telly is on but muted, the large entertainment centre is streaming music from Evan’s laptop through way too many speakers to be reasonable, and the smell of Arabica beans and hazelnut creamer is in the air. James sighs and moves to the kitchen, setting the bags of frozen veg and assorted biscuits on the oak table as he passes to check their coffee stocks. Sure enough, half of the new tin of Hazelnut Dream is missing, as is two of the coffee mugs that James had washed that morning before going in to work for a physical and all around mental torture at the hands of Psych. Again. He sighed, louder this time. That much coffee gone means one thing.

Evan’s got a project on.

James sits down on the padded bar stool in front of the breakfast nook and takes a moment to contemplate the music softly wafting through the air of their flat. Sometimes, he could tell what sort of mood Evan is in just by the sort of tunes he’s listening to - or not listening to, judging by his absence from the room. Then again, that didn’t mean much. James has learned, after a couple years in this relationship, that Evan tends to put music on just so that he didn’t have silence. He claims that it helps him think, and James is ever so inclined to agree. So far, the theme seems to be not death metal, which means that nothing horrid happened to Q Branch. There isn’t any of the strange New Age stuff that he listens to when he needs to calm his mind down, so that isn’t it. James scowls. “But there’s Rob Zombie and Melissa Etheridge?” This playlist is confusing him. He stands again and rustles around in the bags, taking out the vegetables and putting them into the large freezer along the back wall.

“Oh, you’re back already?”

James turns, a smile on his lips, ready to greet his lovely boyfriend...and the smile dies when he gets a really good look at Evan.

What the smile turns into is something much darker and very hungry.

A naked Quartermaster is a delectable treat not many see. Eve has seen him, but only because of a really wild night where there was entirely too much tequila drank and then Evan decided that he could strip tease. Spoiler: he so entirely can. Alec has seen him, but only because of that one night where they ended up in that foursome with Ida...and that had been one hell of a night. And now that he and Evan live together, he gets to see it almost every day, especially when James figures out that it is entirely possible to actually forget to put clothing on after many a morning of catching Evan just before the poor soul gets out the front door. It made for a couple confusing months of Evan wandering around naked or nearly so and James getting very frustrated because usually wandering around naked is a signal in his world but not in this world, this world of domestic bliss and parrots and puppies and the occasional assassination or two. Okay, there is a lot more than just one or two assassinations, but one can’t have everything, can they? So it takes some getting used to, but they make it work.

So, despite the wriggle of deep-seated want boiling in his belly, James only smiles at his nude boyfriend and takes in the clues of Evan’s body. Flaccid, soft, relaxed stance and facial expression, add in the dark circles and exhausted owl-eye glimmer in eyes that aren’t hidden behind those ridiculous glasses...not even remotely looking for a shag. James peers at him. As a matter of fact… “Busy with BlackWire?”

Evan smiled and padded past James with an empty mug that James hadn’t noticed - but who would, with such a delectable expanse of skin to look at? - and refills it from the carafe on the counter. “Very much so. There’s a bug, and it’s not...I’ve been at it all day, I’m tired and ugh, and I’m going to take a shower.” The words are delivered on the tail end of a jaw-cracking yawn and the most doe-ish blink James had ever seen. “And then I’ll continue poking at it with a big stick until one of us gives up and collapses.”

“Big bug?” James moves to pour himself a cup, too. This is shaping up to be a really long night, especially if it is BlackWire that’s giving Evan so much trouble. He doesn’t have enough clearance to know what it is or what it is supposed to do. That is Evan and M’s territory.

“Mmm.” Evan turns and walks back through the main area, disappearing into the back hallway. James chuckles and swirls his black coffee. He hears the shower turn on over The Smashing Pumpkins and gets off the stool, picking a book off of their shared shelving unit, and settles down on the sofa for a good read and tries to ignore his simmering arousal.

He is just getting to the part where the gumshoe is entering the abandoned warehouse when Evan calls from the bath. “James, could you be a dear and bring the whole damned carafe here? I’ve got an idea, but the steam won’t last long if I turn the shower off and open the door!”

James rolls his eyes and heaves himself off the sofa, snatches the half-full carafe off the counter, and pads to the bathroom door. “Do you want me to just leave it here, or -”

“Come on, bring it in!”

James opens the door slightly, slides in through the opening, and shuts it quickly, taking care not to take away Evan’s writing utensil. Instantly, he’s in a jungle of steam. The on-demand water heater is getting a workout, that is for certain. Evan didn’t even look all that wet, his hair is still a rat’s nest. It’s a wet rat’s nest, but he still smells like a man, not like the over-priced bath gel he loves so much. James sets the coffee on the vanity counter and slips up behind Evan, and carefully laps up beads of moisture with his tongue. Evan barely even flinches.

“Good lord, man, I’m working.” The admonishment is halfhearted at best, and Evan doesn’t make a move to escape from James’ attentions. “Thank you for the coffee, though.”

The vanity mirror is covered with equations that James isn’t going to try to figure out. He rather liked his brain and didn’t see the need to burn it out on higher maths. “I was getting to the good part of the book.”

“Moristan did it. She sold out her bellhop to Bellingham because she was worried that her lover Howard would find out that she’s a lying sack of shit.” Evan leans his head back and smiles at James. “Is that the one you are reading?”

“No, I’ve got the one with the stolen white pearl and the shady salesman.”

“Mmm. I think that one was Peckerton and Hamilton in the vandalism ring. Molly took it upon herself to call Bellingham to the shop, and the shopkeeper pointed fingers at Swelt because Swelt had nicked a rather pricey beaded thing the week before, when in fact it was a front for Hamilton to swoop in and grab the pearl. Molly had been in on it for money so that she could take her ailing mother to the hospital for her medicines.”

James groans and nips Evan on the neck. “Damn you. Have you read ever single one of those?”

“It’s isn’t that hard, if you really think about it. Those dimestore whodunit novels don’t have too much substance to them. They are meant as an emergency read in the clinic or on the Tube to ignore wailing infants and dodgy teens.” Evan waves a hand in the air in dismissal. “I’ve memorised them, actually. I don’t know why you continue to buy them.”

“As you say, they are emergency reads. I tend to do a lot of waiting.” James swats at Evan’s hand. “Are you staying in here all night? Do you need clothes? A notebook and biro? Your computer?”

Evan shakes his head and sighs. “No, I have this in my memory. I just need a couple more minutes to figure out this last one, and then I can figure out the firing mechanism.”

James settles on the toilet seat cover and cocks his head. “Firing mech - you aren’t working on BlackWire?”

Evan looks at him. “BlackWire? Oh. That. No, I need to clear my head, so I started on your Walther again. We need to adjust it a hair more, since the biometrics don’t seem to be compensating for the newest of your scars.”

James nods slowly, looking down at his right palm where a perfectly round pockmark sits in his skin, another reminder of how dangerous his job really is. “I could get surgery done, lessen the damage.”

“I’m not entirely certain that would work.” Evan steps over James’ outstretched feet and ducks back into the shower, hissing in pleasure at the hot water on his head. “My God, that feels brilliant.”

James looks up, above the stall, and sees that the vent window is wide open, enough to let the cold December air into the little room. “So, you are alternately freezing and boiling your skin why?”

“So that I can have steam to do calculations in. Do keep up.” Q leaves the glass partition door open, and James can see him scrub shampoo into the mop on his head. “Pour me a cup?”

James sighs and reaches for the abandoned mug and the carafe, filling the mug and setting the carafe on the floor next to him. “So what was the point of me coming in here, if you already have them memorised?”

“I didn’t until about two seconds after you came in. And I think better with background noise.” Evan rinses his hair and reaches for his body wash. James watches him, watches his eyes. Evan’s eyes are like little windows into his mind. James can actually see his brain flicker through thought processes much quicker than either he or Alec could, and they are paid a pretty sum to think quickly on their feet.

“You’d probably make a good field agent.”

Evan pauses in washing his kneecap. “Then you wouldn’t get your toys and baubles because I’d be very dead half the time.” He shakes his head. “Trust me on this, you wouldn’t want me as an agent. I’m much better behind the scenes.”

James nods. “You think fast. I think you’d be fine.”

Evan finishes rinsing off and hops back out of the shower stall to drag his fingers through the fog on the mirror some more. “Until I get shot or stabbed or caught.”

It’s funny that they can talk about it so blithely now. James still feels a small pang in his chest, but it isn’t as bad as it used to be. He poured himself another half cup of coffee, emptying the carafe. Evan is at the mirror still, humming as he worked.

“I’d like to have you at my side, I think.” James wonders where this is all coming from. Maybe he’s had too much coffee. He was never a fan of tea, would rather have coffee if other drinks weren’t available. Maybe his brain is scrambled eggs from everything that day. “It would be nice, having someone I can trust for once.”

Evan stops writing. His head cocks to one side. “I’m always there. And I’m finished.” He reaches for a towel and wraps it around his hips, then turns to face James. “Take me to bed, Double Oh Seven.”

James stares at him for a second. “BlackWire?”

“Can wait.” Evan steps forward, into the cradle of James’ open legs, and leans down. “Fuck me until I can’t think straight. Then I’ll think about going on a couple missions with you.”

James grins. “Oh, now that you have something covering you, you want to get laid.”

Evan slips his cool fingers along James’ jawline. “Towels are easily removed, love.”

“That they are.”

  
  



End file.
